What do they do?
Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. May plan and price menu items, order supplies, and keep records and accounts.
Also known as:
Banquet Chef, Certified Executive Chef (CEC), Chef, Cook, Corporate Executive Chef, Executive Chef (Ex Chef), Executive Pastry Chef, Executive Sous Chef, Food and Beverage Director, Head Cook, Kitchen Manager, Pastry Chef, Sous Chef
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3.8%
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Ranks #55 in job growth rate560Job Openings
Ranks #17 in net job growth
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- High school diploma equivalent (32%)
- Some college, no degree (20%)
- Less than high school diploma (17%)
- Associate's degree (16%)
- Bachelor's degree (12%)
- Master's degree (2%)
- Doctorate or Professional Degree (1%)
Most Popular Majors that prepare Chefs and Head Cooks
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#1
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Degrees Granted
7,568
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Female Students
4,171
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Male Students
3,397
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Median Starting Salary
$33,600
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#2
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Degrees Granted
4,065
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Female Students
3,538
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Male Students
527
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Median Starting Salary
$33,600
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#3
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Degrees Granted
766
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Female Students
468
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Male Students
298
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Median Starting Salary
$33,600
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#4
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Degrees Granted
102
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Female Students
59
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Male Students
43
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Median Starting Salary
$33,600
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People in this career often have these skills:
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
People in this career often know a lot about:
- Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
- Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
People in this career often have talent in:
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
People in this career often do these activities:
- Monitor activities of individuals to ensure safety or compliance with rules.
- Train food preparation or food service personnel.
- Coordinate activities of food service staff.
- Order materials, supplies, or equipment.
- Inspect facilities, equipment or supplies to ensure conformance to standards.
- Check quality of foods or supplies.
- Estimate supplies, ingredients, or staff requirements for food preparation activities.
- Manage food service operations or parts of operations.
- Determine prices for menu items.
- Coordinate timing of food production activities.
- Create new recipes or food presentations.
- Cook foods.
- Plan special events.
- Communicate with customers to resolve complaints or ensure satisfaction.
- Perform human resources activities.
- Record operational or production data.
- Schedule equipment maintenance.
- Plan menu options.
This page includes data from:
Career data: O*NET 30.0 Database
by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (“USDOL/ETA”). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA
Occupation statistics: USDOL U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics
Videos: CareerOneStop, USDOL/ETA and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development
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